Martin Hossbach is a music supervisor for art-house films and series and also acts as an agent for composers creating film scores. Please feel free to check out this podcast, in German, in which Martin talks about his work. On the side Martin is also acting as a festival curator, runs a small music label and is part of the activist group Emmauswald bleibt!.
Recently, at Festival de Cannes, two films that Martin contributed to were selected for the competition: Mascha Schilinski’s SOUND OF FALLING and Joachim Trier’s SENTIMENTAL VALUE – winning the Joint Jury Prize and the Grand Prix, respectively. At the end of August, Schilinski’s film was selected by German Films to be Germany’s entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th annual Academy Awards (»Oscars«). Back to Cannes: Nadav Lapid’s YES!, on which Martin worked, too, was part of the Quinzaine des Cinéastes. ETTY, a new series by Hagai Levi, was shown at the Venice Film Festival, Nastia Korkia’s SHORT SUMMER premiered next door as part of the Giornate degli Autori where it won the Lion of the Future, while Ulrich Köhler’s GAVAGAI first saw the light of the day at the New York Film Festival, both productions had Martin as music supervisor. This year’s Berlinale showed four films Martin contributed to: Ido Fluk’s KÖLN 75, Alissa Jung’s PATERNAL LEAVE, Nele Mueller-Stöfen’s DELICIOUS and Eva Neymann’s WHEN LIGHTNING FLASHES OVER THE SEA. At Locarno Film Festival, Julian Radlmaier’s SEHNSUCHT IN SANGERHAUSEN premiered within the Concorso Internazionale, the international competition. The film’s music supervisor? Martin Hossbach. At the moment you can stream three series Martin has worked on – 30 TAGE LUST, BRÜT and KRANK BERLIN. The latter just won the Deutscher Fernsehpreis for ›Beste Drama-Serie‹.
As mentioned before Martin runs a one-man agency called Martin Hossbach Komposition for film score composers and a music label simply called Martin Hossbach on which he recently released Alexander Winkelmann’s and Teresa Rotschopf’s new albums. For Volkstheater Rostock he is the co-curator of the two-day music festival AXIS which takes place every two years – the next edition is scheduled for 2027.
What music does Martin currently listen to in private? Curious? The answer is here.
Since 2004 Martin has been working on more than 130 films and series as a music supervisor, collaborating with directors such as Maren Ade, Lisa Bierwirth, Frauke Finsterwalder, Sonja Heiss, Christoph Hochhäusler, Ulrich Köhler, Nastia Korkia, Nicolette Krebitz, Nadav Lapid, Hagai Levi, Angela Schanelec, Maria Speth, Stefan Titze, Eva Trobisch, Christian Schwochow and Joachim Trier. For a (hopefully) full overview please click on the link here.
Martin Hossbach Komposition represents the following 29 composers: ÄTNA, Andrea Belfi, Sam Beste, Gabriel Broid & Gilbert Broid (a.k.a. The White Screen), Pedro Goncalves Crescenti & Peter Rubel (a.k.a. International Music and The Düsseldorf Düsterboys), Christoph de Babalon, Tara Nome Doyle, Drangsal, Ebow, Gaddafi Gals, Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy, Gwilym Gold, Philipp Lauer (a.k.a. Lauer), Lawrence, Max Rieger, Nalan, Rosaceae, Teresa Rotschopf & Patrick Pulsinger, Albrecht Schrader, Stefanie Schrank, Stella Sommer, Studio Bonaparte, Alexis Taylor, Jonas Vogler and walter p99 arkestra.
As a curator Martin has been working for numerous festivals. In September 2023 Martin put on a new festival called AXIS at Volkstheater Rostock – the second edition took place in October 2025. From 2015 until 2020 Martin was the co-curator of Pop-Kultur festival. He has also worked in the same role for the festivals The Sun Machine Is Coming Down and Foreign Affairs (Berliner Festspiele), Wassermusik and No! Music (Haus der Kulturen der Welt). The first festival Martin co-programmed was SPEX Live which took place at Berghain in 2009.
From 2013 until 2014 The One-Hit Parade was his interpretation of a web-based chart show which featured up-and-coming Berlin-based artists. It was filmed at Kantine am Berghain. Both Pet Shop Boys and New Order wrote original music (i.e. jingles) for it (season 1, season 2).
From 2012 until 2021 Martin ran a record label called Martin Hossbach. On the label Martin put out music of all kinds, including that of Tara Nome Doyle (see below). There were plenty of sub-labels, too. Martin Hossbach Cover (Pet Shop Boys covers only), Demo (demo recordings only), Quarantäne (for a specific album of the group Obstler only), Score (for music for films, so-called library music) and Word (for texts, readings and audio plays). Most of the releases can still be found on download and streaming platforms (this playlist gives you one song from each release, this playlist gives you each and every song released digitally). In 2025 Martin reactivated the label, releasing albums by the aforementioned Alexander Winkelmann and Teresa Rotschopf.
Tara Nome Doyle is a Norwegian-Irish singer-songwriter whom Martin met by chance in June 2016 and then managed until the beginning of the year 2023. Tara’s debut album, Alchemy, came out in January 2020 on his own label. It gathered rave reviews (»… like Kate Bush singing songs by Nick Cave at Berghain«, SPIEGEL). Tara’s music has been streamed more than ten million million times, her second album, Værmin, was released worldwide to even greater acclaim in January 2022 – this time on Modern Recordings. (Tara’s third album came out on FatCat Records in April 2025.)
In the middle of Neukölln, in the densely populated, already extremely polluted neighborhood around the Hermannstraße S-Bahn station, lies a small natural wonder: the Emmauswald. A nearly 4-hectare, vibrant biotope. Countless trees and animal species. A unique retreat for people and nature – and the largest official forest in Neukölln. And what does BUWOG – a profit-oriented real estate developer from faraway Austria – want to do with this forest? Cut it down. Half of it. For luxury apartments that no one in the neighborhood can afford. Since 2022, the aforementioned initiative, of which Martin is very glad to be a part of, has been fighting for the complete preservation of the Emmauswald. It would be great if you could support us. How? Please get in touch with Martin (see below).
As a journalist (for mainly music-related matters and interviews) Martin has worked for Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Berliner Zeitung, taz, Monopol, Travel Almanac, SPEX (as a duty editor from 2007-2010), Rolling Stone (compiling their cover-mount CDs Rare Trax from 2013 until 2019), Intro, Prinz, Szene Hamburg and Max Dax’s Sonic Press (where he started in 1993). Together with Jens Balzer he is the publisher of Die Tocotronic Chroniken (Blumenbar), a monograph about the German avant-rock group Tocotronic. Recently, the Swiss architectural practice Weyell Zipse commissioned Martin to write an essay about their Haus P. The brochure will be presented in Basel in March of next year. Will he ever finish the novel he has been working on (and off) since 2012?
From 1996 until 1999 Martin was an apprentice at PolyGram and later worked as a product manager for the labels Deutsche Grammophon, Decca and Philips at Universal Classics. He quit in 2003 to become assistant of the artist Christian von Borries, his stint at SPEX, see above, was followed in 2010 by two years at Berghain, co-programming concerts during the week, at Berghain itself and Kantine am Berghain, and developing Halle am Berghain for a prospective opening. In 2013 and 2014 Martin put on New Order and Depeche Mode exhibitions for Deutsche Telekom’s Electronic Beats programme while also arranging for Pet Shop Boys’ only performance of their album Elysium – at Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin.
Martin loves the woman he’s married to, and he loves his family and friends, too. He also loves to write, read, talk, drink, eat, cook, bake, walk, hike, run and cycle. He loves nature, trees especially. Martin is from Hamburg and lives in Berlin. He’s 50 years old. If you would like to get in touch with Martin, please send him an e-mail that says »I love you« in the subject line.
P.S.: These two websites were designed by Norman Palm and programmed by Rasso Hilber.